Researcher Gives Apple Details of macOS Keychain Security Flaw Despite No Mac Bug Bounty Program

A German teenager who discovered a macOS Keychain security flaw last month has now shared the details with Apple, after having initially refused to hand them over because of the company's lack of a bug bounty program for the Mac.


Eighteen-year-old Linus Henze dubbed the zero-day macOS vulnerability he found "KeySteal," which, as demoed in the video above, can be used to disclose all sensitive data stored in the Keychain app.

Henze said he decided to reveal the details to Apple because the bug "is very critical and because the security of macOS users is important to me."


After Henze released the video in early February, Apple's security team reached out to him, but the researcher said he wouldn't disclose the details without a cash reward, arguing that discovering the vulnerabilities takes time.

"Even if it looks like I'm doing this just for money, this is not my motivation at all in this case," said Henze. "My motivation is to get Apple to create a bug bounty program. I think that this is the best for both Apple and Researchers."

Apple has a reward program for iOS that provides money to those who discover bugs, but there is no similar payment system for macOS bugs.

Top Rated Comments

GaryMumford Avatar
55 months ago
He probably cares more about the Mac OS as platform than Apple do
Score: 71 Votes (Like | Disagree)
StellarVixen Avatar
55 months ago
He probably cares about Mac OS as platform, and wants to see bugs fixed.


Thank you, Linus.


Now, Apple, listen to the people, and start bug bounty program.
Score: 68 Votes (Like | Disagree)
69Mustang Avatar
55 months ago
Get a bounty program for Macs. This is not a good look for Apple. There's no reason to have a program for iOS and not MacOS.
Score: 33 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sofila Avatar
55 months ago
I can't really imagine a way for blaming him and his behaviour, but I'm sure this forum won't let me disappointed
Score: 28 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chrono1081 Avatar
55 months ago
It’s great that Apple values our privacy, but the lack of security makes all that effort pretty much useless. I think we’ve seen more critical security bugs from Apple than from any other major company.
I'm sorry but this is just BS. I used to support Windows environments for a living, what you see on Mac is literally nothing compared to what you see on Windows.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
loby Avatar
55 months ago
Maybe there is too many bugs in MacOS that Tim would lose to much money on the deal...
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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